The Sea Hawk (1940) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error | Action , Adventure , History | 1 July 1940 (USA) Geoffrey Thorpe, a buccaneer, is hired by Queen Elizabeth I to nag the Spanish Armada. The Armada is waiting for the attack on England and Thorpe surprises them with attacks on their galleons where he shows his skills on the sword. Director: Howard Koch (screen play), Seton I.

Miller (screen play) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 35 titles created 20 Mar 2011 a list of 30 titles created 25 Mar 2011 a list of 24 titles created 27 Dec 2012 a list of 30 titles created 18 Jan 2013 a list of 32 titles created 5 months ago Title: The Sea Hawk (1940) 7.8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 4 Oscars. See more awards » Videos After being wrongly convicted as a traitor, Peter Blood, an English physician, is sent to exile in the British colonies of the Caribbean, where he becomes a pirate. Director: Michael Curtiz When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.

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See full summary » Director: Raoul Walsh In 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume. Director: Michael Curtiz As bareknuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the top of the boxing world. Director: Raoul Walsh 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City in Nevada. Once there he finds that the former commander of his prison Vance Irby is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy. Director: Michael Curtiz A Canadian Mountie of German descent feigns disaffection with his homeland in hopes of infiltrating and thwarting a Nazi sabotage plot. Director: Raoul Walsh Edit Storyline Geoffrey Thorpe is an adventurous and dashing pirate, who feels that he should pirate the Spanish ships for the good of England.

In one such battle, he overtakes a Spanish ship and when he comes aboard he finds Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal. He is overwhelmed by her beauty, but she will have nothing to do with him because of his pirating ways (which include taking her prized jewels). To show his noble side, he suprises her by returning the jewels, and she begins to fall for him. When the ship reaches England, Queen Elizabeth is outraged at the actions of Thorpe and demands that he quit pirating. Because he cannot do this, Thorpe is sent on a mission and in the process becomes a prisoner of the Spaniards. Meanwhile, Dona Maria pines for Thorpe and when he escapes he returns to England to uncover some deadly secrets. Exciting duels follow as Thorpe must expose the evil and win Dona Maria's heart. Written by Julie Sherman <jsherma@hubcap.clemson.edu> Dashing...romantic...Errol Flynn at his thrilling best! See more » Genres: 1 July 1940 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Beggars of the Sea See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know?

Trivia Flora Robson previously played Queen Elizabeth I in Fire Over England (1937), which also depicted the Spanish Armada. See more » Goofs The opening sea engagement between the Albatross and the Spanish ship shows The Spanish ship using galley slaves to move the ship. The captain makes an open apology saying "The sails cannot entice the wind", and yet the Albatross closes under full sail and catches up to the Spanish ship within a few minutes. This is impossible, even if both ships were under full sail, it would take hours for one ship to close enough for combat when first sighted by the lookout. See more » Quotes [first lines] King Philip II : The riches of the New World are limitless, and the New World is ours - with our ships carrying the Spanish flag on seven seas, our armies sweeping over Africa, the Near East, and the Far West; invincible everywhere... but on our own doorstep. Only northern Europe holds out against us; why? Tell me, why? (Buffalo, New York) – See all my reviews My favorite Errol Flynn movie has always been The Sea Hawk. Flynn made this in 1940 at the height of his career.

All it is missing is Flynn's usual screen partner in that period, Olivia DeHavilland. Errol Flynn plays the fictional privateer Geoffrey Thorpe who with the well known real characters like Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins, raid the rich Spanish commerce from the New World which is what Europeans of the day were referring to the western hemisphere as. Queen Elizabeth of England gave all knowing wink to their activities and the realm took a cut of their loot. One day Flynn attacks the ship carrying the Spanish ambassador Claude Rains and his niece Brenda Marshall who's English on her mother's side. That's it for Flynn. But Queen Elizabeth has some traitors in her midst. The clever Lord Wolfingham played by Henry Daniell is in the Spanish pay. Daniell was one of the best screen villains ever. He was always a cold and calculating individual and had a voice with a built in sneer. He very cleverly deduces Flynn's future plans and lays a trap for him. See the film and find out, but suffice it to say Daniell is no fool. Jack Warner saw that Flynn's films were always well scored musically. Flynn swashbuckled to some of the best film music ever composed.

Here the composer is Erich Wolfgang Korngold, in other films with Warner Brothers, it's Max Steiner. Korngold's score isn't quite on par with the one he did for Robin Hood, but it's one you will not forget. This was the last film Errol Flynn did with director Michael Curtiz. David Niven in his memoirs made of Curtiz a figure of some fun, he was the guy with the fractured English who uttered the memorable phrase that became Niven's title for his memoirs, 'bring on the empty horses.' Flynn in his memoirs hated him with a passion in that Curtiz put his players in some dangerous situations without regard for safety. After this he refused to work with him. But between them, Curtiz and Flynn did some grand entertainment. Curtiz later won an Oscar for directing Casablanca. Flora Robson repeats her role as Queen Elizabeth, she had previously portrayed Elizabeth in Fire Over England back in the old country. It's probably the part she's most identified with in her career. Brenda Marshall who is probably better known for being Mrs. William Holden, pinch hits for Olivia DeHavilland.

Olivia was trying to get some better acting roles that she knew she could do and not be a crinolined heroine all the time. Jack Warner refused to see her as anything else for a long time. Others in the cast who stand out are Alan Hale, Una O'Connor, Gilbert Roland and William Lundigan has a death scene that will haunt you for a long time. The Sea Hawk is also a film that made use of a film process known as sepia tone. It's probably the film best known for it. The whole sequence of when Flynn sails his ship, the Albatross, to Panama is photographed in sepia tone. It makes the film come out a kind of brackish yellow. Since Warner Brothers didn't want to spring for full technicolor, this process is effective in demonstrating the jungle heat that Flynn and his men and the Spaniards for that matter operate under. It is also no accident that this film was made in 1940 showing brave England refusing to buckle under to a tyrant from the European continent. Phillip II of Spain, played by Montagu Love, controlled a whole lot of the world's real estate at that point in time and wanted more.

The meaning for the audiences of 1940 could not have been more clear. The Sea Hawk is grand entertainment. In my humble opinion Errol Flynn's best film and one of the best of the swashbuckling genre. 43 of 47 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Pirate Trailer 1 - The Sea Hawk (1940) - YouTube Pirate Trailer 1 - The Sea Hawk (1940) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Jan 25, 2009 This is the trailer for "The Sea Hawk" (1940), Errol Flynn's second pirate film. He had made "Captain Blood" in 1935 and had appeared in a number of romantic costume dramas in the intervening years, but "Captain Blood" was his first return to the full-blooded swashbuckling film.

The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, the famous director of "Casablanca" (1942). Flynn played Geoffrey Thorpe, an English privateer plundering Spanish ships to help the motherland build a fleet to counter the threat posed by the build-up of the Spanish armada; Claude Rains played the oily Spanish ambassador; and Brenda Marshall played his attractive neice who falls for Thrope. Category Movie Review: The Sea Hawk (1940) Movie Review: The Sea Hawk (1940) by StevenHelmer A review of the 1940 pirate movie that pairs Errol Flynn and Claude Rains. Synopsis: The king of Spain plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth of England in the 16th century but a lone English privateer by the name of Geoffrey Thorpe presents an obstacle both by attacking Spanish ships and robbing them of their gold and, when he discovers the king's plans, by trying to return to England to warn his queen. Who's In It? The movie stars Errol Flynn , Claude Rains , Brenda Marshall , Flora Robson , Donald Crisp and Alan Hale . Review I don't watch pirate movies very often.

But, my daughter and I wanted to watch a movie together last night and I decided a film from this genre would be a nice change of pace from our typical Friday night horror film. I ended up picking "The Sea Hawk" because my daughter is familiar with Claude Rains from "The Invisible Man" and some other films we've watched together. And, for the most part, it ended up being better than I expected. I'm actually not much of an Errol Flynn fan. I've seen plenty of his other movies and he always seems to play his characters with an over-the-top arrogance that just doesn't quite work for me. However, he does manage to keep things toned down quite a bit in this film and, as a result of that, I did think he did an excellent job in his role of the hero Thorpe. The person that really impressed me, however, was Robson, who, in my opinion at least, really stood out as Queen Elizabeth. She managed to be charming yet firm and even a little scary, pretty much everything I would expect to see from the legendary queen. Brenda Marshall might have played Thorpe's love interest Dona Maria. But, Robson was much more memorable.

While there are some exciting sea battles in this movie, including one early on in the film, the movie does tend to drag on at times. This includes what I thought was a pretty dragged out scene with the queen (in an effort to keep up appearances) publicly chastising her privateers. After seeing the sea battle prior to that, it was a little bit of a let down, at least until the film started picking up toward the end. I also thought some parts of the movie, including the love story between Thorpe and Dona Maria, were kind of predictable. It wasn't anything that made me dislike the movie in general. But, it would have been nice to see at least an effort to be a little more unique The Sea Hawk (1940) Starring: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains - Three Movie Buffs Review Reviewed on: February 15th, 2006 The Sea Hawk The Sea Hawk finds Errol Flynn in full on swashbuckling mode. He re-teams with The Adventures of Robin Hood director Michael Curtiz and Robin Hood co-stars Alan Hale and Claude Rains.

If only The Sea Hawk had spent more time on his character's adventures and less on talking this would have truly been a movie about “Robin Hood of the sea." Flynn plays a British pirate captain named Thorpe who only robs from the Spanish as they are threatening war with England. As the movie opens Thorpe attacks a Spanish ship. He rescues the British slaves used for rowing and meets the beautiful Maria. He steals her jewels but gives them back in a gesture of good will which of course sets them on a path to fall in love. The Queen of England then sends Thorpe on a mission to South America where the Spanish are busy plundering the local's gold. Thorpe gets caught and in turn is made a slave. He eventually escapes back to England where he discovers some important information that Maria must help him get to the Queen. Made during the onset of World War II, The Sea Hawk does not shy from then current political issues. Hitler's Third Reich was growing in Europe and this movie comments many times on it.

King Phillip of Spain obviously represents Hitler when he has this piece of dialogue as the movie opens, “The riches of the New World are limitless, and the New World is ours - with our ships carrying the Spanish flag on seven seas, our armies sweeping over Africa, the Near East, and the Far West; invincible everywhere ... but on our own doorstep. Only northern Europe holds out against us; why? Tell me, why?" The final scene in the movie has The Queen of England giving this speech, “And now, my loyal subjects, a grave duty confronts us all: To prepare our nation for a war that none of us wants, least of all your queen. We have tried by all means in our power to avert this war. We have no quarrel with the people of Spain or of any other country; but when the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world, it becomes the solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men, and that freedom is the deed and title to the soil on which we exist.

Firm in this faith, we shall now make ready to meet the great armada that Philip sends against us." The fun of The Adventures of Robin Hood was Flynn apparently having the time of his life fighting the oppressive Prince John. His cocky charm and swagger made for a great roguish hero. The Sea Hawk is too dramatic and over done with political innuendos. There are several good action sequences but at over two hours long it drags in many places. Did you enjoy Eric's review? +8 Reviewed on: July 25th, 2012 Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk. Eric, I beg to differ. The Sea Hawk is a rousing adventure tale. Yes it runs over two hours but it moves like gangbusters. It has plenty of stirring action, especially the impressive sea battle early in the movie. Warner's spent a pretty penny on that scene. Flynn's entrance is classic. First we see his ship approaching from the deck of a Spanish ship. Then we see his crew and the camera pans across the deck of his ship. A monkey climbs the mast rigging (he gets several humorous scenes later on). The camera alights on Alan Hale who asks a question of his captain.

Finally, the impossibly handsome face of Errol Flynn appears wearing that famous devil-may-care grin. Set half-a-millennium ago on the eve of the Spanish Armada, The Sea Hawk definitely makes the most of any historical parallels to the world of 1940. As Eric wrote, there are several speeches that audiences of the day would have instantly recognized for the propaganda they were. However, for today's viewer they need not be a distraction as they fit the historical setting of the movie just as much as they did the world of 1940. My favorite line of dialogue is spoken by Flynn's Captain Thorpe about the Spanish but could also have been said, in all accuracy, of Nazi Germany, “You Spanish have a gift for hospitality when your guests are in chains.” Warner Brothers saved some money on the costumes, which were recycled from the previous year's big budget epic The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. In that movie Flynn played opposite Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I, while this time around Flora Robson plays the most famous matriarch in European history. Her Queen Elizabeth is tough but kindhearted.

Her best moment comes when she says of Spain's King Philip II, “Who does he think he is to tell the Queen of England what to do?!” The scene at the end where she knights Captain Thorpe was famously spoofed in a Bugs Bunny cartoon that also included footage of Errol Flynn from The Adventures of Robin Hood. Originally Olivia de Havilland was going to be cast alongside her frequent costar but she was tired of playing damsels in distress in Flynn swashbuckler pictures. Brenda Marshall got the role of Doña Maria in her stead. Besides Alan Hale this movie boasts such Warner's stalwarts as Claude Rains and Donald Crisp. Una O'Connor has a small part as the Spanish Princesses' English chaperone. Michael Curtiz and Errol Flynn made a great team. This was their tenth picture together as director and actor. The Adventures of Robin Hood will always be their undisputed masterpiece together but The Sea Hawk ranks alongside Captain Blood as a quintessential pirate movie. A must see for classic movie buffs. Did you enjoy Patrick's review? +12 Reviewed on: August 31st, 2012 Flora Robson and Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

It's true that there is plenty of swash in this movie's buckle, but there is a darker shadow hanging over this movie that makes it less fun than Flynn and director Curtiz's The Adventures of Robin Hood. Undoubtedly this is because of the start of World War II and the advance of Hitler across Europe. As my brothers mentioned, the script is filled with allusion to the 1940 political situation. King Philip II of Spain has this line at the beginning of the film, “One day, before my death, we shall sit here and gaze at this map upon the wall. It will have ceased to be a map of the world. It will be Spain.” which sounds strikingly similar in sentiment to Hitler's “Today Germany, tomorrow the world.” slogan. British audiences in particular must have been cheered by England's defiance of a tyrant in this movie. There are several great action sequences, but I agree with Eric that there was still plenty of room for editing. Part of the problem with the pacing is that the opening battle at sea is the most exciting scene in the whole movie. Almost everything seem anticlimactic after that.

There are other action sequences scattered throughout the movie's long run, including the attack in the jungle and galley slave's uprising, but none of them live up to that opening. The big finale features a sword fight between Flynn's Captain Thorpe (thinly based on Sir Francis Drake) and the traitorous Lord Wolfingham (played by Henry Daniell), but he never once comes across as a threat to our hero. Flynn is fine in the lead, but his charm feels subdued, almost as if the filmmakers didn't want him to be too frivolous or cavalier in a movie while others were dying on real battlefields. Brenda Marshall (the long suffering, on-again, off-again wife to William Holden in real life) is fine, but fairly generic in the lead female role and Claude Rains is underused as the Spanish ambassador. Alan Hale, who I swear had a deal at the time that he must appear in every movie Hollywood produced, brings a little added levity to the story, but it needed more. The action is here and indeed, plenty of swashbuckling adventure, but somehow the charm just isn't, or at least not in great enough quantities.

It's entertaining enough, but Flynn and Curtiz made much better movies together than this one. Did you enjoy Scott's review? +5 ‎The Sea Hawk (1940) directed by Michael Curtiz • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd 4 Top notch Hollywood thrills, deftly blending the political maneuvering and grand romance of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with the swashbuckling thrills and slave uprisings of Captain Blood. Curtiz at the top of his game: a massive melee between hundreds of extras effortlessly transitions into comedy, as Errol Flynn informs his captives that their ship is sinking as he picks through their choicest jewels. The peak Flynn film is still The Adventures of Robin Hood, with it's effervescent joy and good times, but this is the closest he ever got to a complicated nuanced performance. Even enslaved as Captain Blood, he's always the smuggest and smartest guy in any situation. Here he's able to sell his pain and… Review by PUNQ ★★★½ The Sea Hawk (1940) is another top notch Errol Flynn action bonanza!

They have been doing these successfully since 1935 busting out one blockbuster after the other. By now it's close to formula and almost too elegantly done. Still a winning formula of spectacular action, slick villains and a lot of fun in between! The two big changes where both the make and break of the film. The positive was the new leading lady Brenda Marshall excellently filling the shoes of Olivia de Havilland. Not 100% sure on their natural chemistry as they didn't get much time together, but she was a strong presence here helping making it fresh. On the bad side, it lacked someone like Basil Rathbone on… Review by Nuno Costa ★★★ Viewed on TCM According to IMDB.Com: Many viewers at the time could possibly make parallels between the film's period setting and World War II. The writers intended King Phillip to be an analogy of Adolf Hitler, and Phillip's attempt to conquer England was similar to Hitler's apparent intention of invading the United Kingdom. (However it is disputed whether Hitler really intended to invade the UK, or whether Operation Sea Lion was just a bluff to put pressure on the British government to come to terms with Germany after the Fall of France).

This makes Queen Elizabeth's speech at the end, in which she states that the world does not belong to only one man, all the more poignant. Regardless of… Considering that The Adventures of Robin Hood is one of my all time favorite films, the fact that I had never seen this was a deep personal failing, thankfully rectified. The monkey is first ballot animal sidekick hall of famer. God they could write dialogue back then. Cutting, witty, flirty without being blatant or overwritten. No standard setup-punchline stuff, just high quality back and forth. The sets! The costumes! Errol Flynn (one of the great movie stars hands down). The action! So much going on, so many people involved, so much movement and many goings on all throughout the frame from scene to scene. There would totally be a Sea Hawk cinematic universe revolving around the other ship captains were… 1 Much more exciting than the dull Captain Blood, this film has a simple storyline that provides a good backdrop for swashbuckling and adventure.

There are some odd political metaphors meant to increase the relevance of the film for an audience recently thrust into World War II that are less sensible the more I think about them, but that element and the insipid romance subplot both feel like window dressing that only slightly detracts from the main event--Errol Flynn getting into outlandish swordfights and braving various dangers. This movie does not skimp on that, giving him plenty of obstacles to overcome on the way to achieving a clear goal. There's only one scene that really made my jaw drop (featuring a… The Sea Hawk (1940) with Errol Flynn and Brenda Marshall Greg Orypeck Adventure , Curtiz, Michael , Flynn, Errol , Movies of the 1940s , Warner Brothers Share This! “Captain Thorpe, if you undertook such a venture, you would do so without the approval of the Queen of England, but you would take with you the grateful affection . . .

of Elizabeth.”—— Queen Elizabeth I (Flora Robson) The Sea Hawk, which premiered in 1940, was at least twofold superior to its five-year-earlier predecessor Captain Blood—in sets, script, visual excitement, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s score, certainly in Errol Flynn ’s acting. Superior except in the presence, nay, the substitution, of Errol Flynn’s love interest. Even among the minor actor-roles, however small, there were some welcomed and familiar carryovers—Fritz Leiber, Pedro de Cordoba, Halliwell Hobbes, Harry Cording, Leonard Mudie and Colin Kenny. No carryover, unfortunately, in the part of the lovely Doña Maria. Olivia de Havilland had been scheduled for the role but refused to be yet another wallflower lady-in-waiting for Flynn, and Brenda Marshall filled the vacancy, though hardly “the bill.” At best, Marshall is somewhat tepid and, at times, as in the great reunion love scene in the coach, she appears a little nauseous, as if being cheek to cheek with Flynn was a let-me-get-this-over drudgery.

There’s that strange dip in the corners of her mouth. Her performance is the weakest part of the film. Not to fear. Even with her, The Sea Hawk is one of the great swashbucklers of film history. Director Michael Curtiz is perhaps never better in the adventure genre than here, even better than in The Adventures of Robin Hood, also starring Flynn. The original Sea Hawk screenplay by Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller is literate, often moving and humorous, and occasionally poetic. And this is, hands down, the best of Korngold’s film scores, the last of his four Oscar nominations. His is a key ingredient in the atmosphere of The Sea Hawk, adding appropriate splendor and sweep to the story—the pungent smell of cannon, the pounding horror of a slave galley and the heroic passion the screen lovers sometimes seem hard-pressed to muster. Unusual for swashbucklers—like comedies, they’ve somehow been judged a lesser breed—The Sea Hawk received three other Oscar nominations besides for score: for sound, special effects and art direction. The sets, like the costumes, were leftovers from The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex the year before.

The reuse of the sets was typical of the always cost-conscious Warner Bros., as was the decision to stick with black and white over Technicolor, partly because the recycled battle scenes from several earlier movies, including Captain Blood, were in B&W. The Sea Hawk film bears little resemblance to Rafael Sabatini’s 1915 novel about the Cornish pirate who adopts the name Sakr-el-Bahr, though that character’s servitude on a Spanish slave galley is retained. Rather, apart from the swash and buckle, the film centers on the kind of intrigue in the courts of Spain and England found in Alexander Korda’s Fire Over England(1937). It’s probably because Flora Robson played Queen Elizabeth I so regally in that flick that director Curtiz felt her a natural for his Queen. Following soon after the heroic main title (Korngold keyed his music to the splashing of the sea against the ship’s prow), Don José Alvarez de Cordoba ( Claude Rains ), King Philip II’s ambassador, is sailing to England in a lumbering Spanish galleass. Aboard are his niece, Doña Maria (Marshall), and her maid servant, Miss Latham (Una O’Connor).

The oars that help propel the ship are manned by English prisoners. As for the English raiders who menace these waters, Captain Lopez (Gilbert Roland) tells his passenger, “Like hawks, Don Alvarez, they’re on you before you see them.” Almost at that moment, Captain Geoffrey Thorpe’s (Flynn) ship, the “Albatross,” is sighted (to an impressive blast of a trumpet from EWK). Aided by his fellow privateers—Edgar Buchanan, William Lundigan and Julien Mitchell at the gunwale for a long camera pan—the English defeat the Spaniards in a long, exciting battle. (Please consult a dictionary for the subtle differences between a pirate and a privateer!) With regal pomp (one of EWK’s finest marches), the sea hawks, including captains played by Robert Warwick and Frank Lackteen, enter the Queen’s throne room. In an argument between Thorpe and Lord Wolfingham (Henry Daniell) over King Philip’s (Montagu Love) cruel treatment of English prisoners, Elizabeth puts on a good show of democratic deference to Spain, but during Thorpe’s private audience, she assumes a quite different posture.

Opposed at first, she agrees to his scheme to rob a Spanish gold caravan in Panama. (EWK introduces in the subtlest possible way the Panama march to come.) Doña Maria is by now a little smitten with the captain, though too proud to let him know. When he tells her he will be sailing soon and that he thought he saw “something in your eyes,” she replies that he must be mistaken. (EWK’s music for the rose garden love scene is a jewel, complete with saxophones.) During a chess game with her uncle (darkly begun by a rising and falling repeated motif in a solo bass clarinet), Doña Maria overhears from spy Kroner (Francis McDonald) a plan to intercept Thorpe in Panama. To warn him, she takes a wild coach ride to Dover—only to be too late: the “Albatross” has sailed on the ebb tide. (EWK gives the two a sumptuous goodbye, recalling a similar moment in Captain Blood, in both cases he gazing back from the ship, she staring out from the dock. Almost the musical climax of The Sea Hawk.

But, no, there’s more!) Thorpe and his men successfully attack the caravan but are later ambushed by the Spanish. The English escape into the swamp. At one point in all this, there’s a short soliloquy from the captain’s first mate (old-time Flynn sidekick Alan Hale) on the irksome mosquito, ending, “The beasts have ears! . . . No, rather have the Spanish.” The crew are captured by Lopez when they reboard the “Albatross.” (For the caravan march, full of percussion beats and taps, EWK uses a theme he had written for a film that never materialized.) The Panama sequences are sepia-toned, which, to some viewers, seems to dull the B&W’s sharpness and soften its contrasts, a choice influenced by the reuse of scenes from the 1924 Sea Hawk, which werealso in sepia. Back at court, surrounded by the Queen and her ladies in waiting, Doña Maria has finished her song, “My Love Is Far from Me,” when Don José enters to announce that Thorpe and his men have been captured and condemned to the galley. Doña Maria faints.

(The German-speaking EWK borrowed from a previous art song, “Das Maedchen,” revising and publishing the film song as “Alt-spanisch,” the third in a set of five art songs, Opus 38.) Thorpe and his men escape their chains and take over the galleass and seize the dispatches to Lord Wolfingham about Spanish plans to send an armada against England. They set sail in one of the film’s trademark sequences: “Aloft there! Clear you leech lines . . . clear away your mizzen banks . . . heave tuck your halyards . . . take away your true lines.” (This segues into another Korngoldian climax, now with a male chorus, beginning, “Pull on the oars/Freedom is yours/Strike for the shores of Dover.”) Arriving at Dover, Thorpe surprises Doña Maria in the coach, and she confesses her love. He must warn the Queen about the armada but is challenged by Wolfingham. Daniell’s ineptitude with the rapier forced the use of a double except in close-ups, and the faster than normal film speed makes for unnatural movement, though it is Flynn’s best fencing sequence.

(The supporting music is an EWK tour de force, longer and more complicated than that in The Adventures of Robin Hood.) Wolfingham dispatched, Captain Thorpe has a reward in store—besides the waiting love of the onlooking Doña Maria, there’s a knighting from the Queen. The scene on the crowded deck of the “Albatross” with the Queen’s canopy might remind some of Peter Paul Rubens’ painting “The Arrival of Mary of Medici at Marseilles.” Like a Baroque painting, the B&W could almost turn to color! But abruptly the Queen raises her left hand to still the cheers. The story direction takes a detour. The final, joyous hooray is postponed. First—— The Sea Hawk was released eighteen months before the U.S. entered World War II and while England, already at war, was awaiting an expected onslaught by Adolf Hitler. Warner Bros. was the first Hollywood studio to release an anti-Nazi film, Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), and the studio wanted to give England whatever encouragement it could. In Elizabeth’s war-time speech just substitute “Hitler” and “Luftwaffe” whenever appropriate: “ . . .

to prepare our nation for a war that none of us wants . . . the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world . . . we shall make ready to meet this great armada that Philip sends against us . . . ” The speech was cut in the film’s first post-war release but has been subsequently restored. ——The final hurrah from the crowd on the “Albatross” is resumed, not because of Thorpe’s knighthood but, now, because of the Queen’s stirring speech. Everyone is in accord—damn that scoundrel Hitler . . . er . . . Philip. The shouts are then joined by an upsurge from Korngold—the male chorus with “Hail to the Queen!” End cast. The chunk of Korngold which tends to capture the attention and imagination of the viewer, perhaps because of its length and kaleidoscopic themes, is the sea engagement in the early part of the film. From the sound of that trumpet announcing the sighting of Thorpe’s ship to another trumpet signaling the surrender of the Spanish vessel, the sequence is a dense, ever-changing ten minutes of music. Themes are introduced, they come and go, they are varied.

Even the later duel music for Wolfingham and Thorpe is previewed in the brief sword fight between Lopez and Thorpe. Perhaps Thorpe’s theme (the theme that opens the main title) is a bit overused with little variation. Huh! For a composer who had, at first, turned down The Adventures of Robin Hood because there was too much action—fast tempo requiring so many more notes than slow—Korngold had accepted in The Sea Hawk the most complex, time-consuming assignment of his Hollywood career. So much so that four orchestrators worked day and night to realize EWK’s detailed specifications of instrumentation and effects. Another rousing, quite different sequence, also with continuous music, is the slaves’ escape from the galley. It’s an exciting nine minutes from the moment Thorpe dislodges the chain that binds the oarsmen to their benches until the sailors finally set sail. All is subtlety, variety and masterful orchestration. It’s actually a suspenseful, long crescendo, disrupted by dramatic outbursts. The orchestra begins quietly, a timid rustling, with only suggestions of a variation on the Thorpe theme.

More instruments and other themes are added—now tremolo strings, now an isolated sforzando, now a sustained chord, now a two-note motif in the woodwinds, now brutal fight music—as the slaves loosen their chains, knock out the timekeeper (Art Miles), subdue the guards, struggle with the Spanish messenger (Gerald Mohr). Finally, now with a long-held, major-key chord, a sudden resolution. All the suspense is broken and the men prepare the ship for sea, climaxed by a sailors’ chorus. Despite these two exciting sequences, perhaps a better, certainly more nuanced scene is Captain Thorpe’s audience with the Queen. First, jokes about his pet monkey (represented, principally, by a xylophone), then some relaxed, almost intimate dialogue, then a gift of a West Indian pearl for the Queen. Their guarded affection is best exemplified in this exchange: “Have you any other scruples?” she asks. “One only, madam—that is to never willfully displease you.” “Have you?” “I trust not. One could be mistaken.” The obvious respect the screen characters have for one another comes from the same mutual esteem the two actors had in real life.

In a 1975 interview with Korngold authority Brendan Carroll, Dame Robson remarked, “Errol Flynn was utterly charming . . . I found him to be a total professional, punctual and letter-perfect.” The usually insensitive actor, who hid vodka in skin cleanser bottles and had girls waiting in his dressing room, was aware that Robson’s scenes were being filmed first to accommodate her opening on Broadway, and, as she said, “he had made a special effort on my account.” Which leads to the inevitable observation: In this scene, there is more charisma, more warmth between these two stars than in any moment between Flynn and Brenda Marshall; in fact, Marshall seems to act better without her co-star—with O’Connor in the rose garden, with Rains after learning of Thorpe’s capture, with Robson in whether to “love” a man or “rule” him. The Adventures of Robin Hood, it seems,is usually touted as Flynn’s best swashbuckler, giving it an edge over The Sea Hawk, perhaps because of the knowledge, subconsciously, that all those exploits in Sherwood Forest are in Technicolor. No, the best of all Flynn’s films, period, is The Sea Hawk.

In each instance, the movie goes a step further than Robin Hood—a superior script, Flynn’s more subtle and nuanced acting, Korngold’s even more expansive music and Sol Polito’s more dynamic cinematography (he did share the camera with Tony Gaudio in the earlier film). Color notwithstanding, the final could-have-been clincher in The Sea Hawk’s supremacy over Robin Hood—perhaps many people would agree—would have been, had Fate deemed otherwise, the inclusion of the greatly missed . . . what was her name? . . . oh, yes: Olivia de Havilland. Liked it? Take a second to support Greg Orypeck on Patreon! Related The Sea Hawk (1940) - Michael Curtiz | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie The Sea Hawk (1940) Directed by Michael Curtiz Genres - Adventure | Sub-Genres - Costume Adventure , Sea Adventure , Swashbuckler | Release Date - Jul 1, 1940 (USA) | Run Time - 128 min.

| Countries - USA | MPAA Rating - NR AllMovie Rating twitter Synopsis by Bruce Eder In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks -- the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown -- are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. And Captain Geoffrey Thorpe ( Errol Flynn ) is the boldest of the Sea Hawks, responsible for capturing and destroying more than 50 Spanish ships and ten Spanish cities. His capture of a Spanish galleon, however, leads to more than he bargained for, in a romance with the ambassador's niece ( Brenda Marshall ) and the first whiff of a plan to put Spanish spies into the court of Elizabeth I ( Flora Robson ). Thorpe's boldness leads him to a daring raid on a treasure caravan in Panama which, thanks to treachery within Elizabeth's court, gets him captured and, with his crew, sentenced to the life of a slave aboard a Spanish ship. Meanwhile, Philip of Spain decides to wipe the threat posed by Elizabeth's independence from the sea by conquering the island nation with his armada.

Thorpe, though chained to an oar, knows who the traitor at court is and plans to expose him and Philip's plans, but can he and his men break their bonds and get back to England alive in time to thwart the plans for conquest? The Sea Hawk was the last and most mature of Flynn 's swashbuckling adventure films, played with brilliant stylistic flourishes by the star at his most charismatic, and most serious and studied when working with Flora Robson , whom he apparently genuinely respected. Boasting the handsomest, most opulent production values of a Warner Bros. period film to date, The Sea Hawk was made possible in part by a huge new floodable soundstage. Another highlight was the best adventure film score ever written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold ; and the script's seriousness was nailed down by various not-so-veiled references not to 16th century Spain but 20th century Nazi Germany. The movie was cut by over 20 minutes for a reissue with The Sea Wolf , and the complete version was lost until a preservation-quality source was found at the British Film Institute.

Since then, that 128-minute version -- which actually contains a one-minute patriotic speech by Robson as Elizabeth that was originally left out of U.S. prints, as well as amber tinting in all of the Panamanian sequences -- has become standard. Characteristics TBT: The Sea Hawk (1940) | Frock Flicks TBT: The Sea Hawk (1940) Tweet This epic film takes a riff on actual historical events — the tense period of the 16th century, before the invasion of the Spanish Armada, when English ships were harassing Spanish ships without much disapproval from Queen Elizabeth I. The Sea Hawk (1940) invents a privateer by the name of Geoffrey Thorpe (played by Errol Flynn ) as the chief fellow who’s going to get under Spain’s skin. And to complicate matters, the Spanish ambassador has a pretty niece, aka love interest, Doña María (played by Brenda Marshall). There’s an adventure with Thorpe pirating it off in Panama, while María improbably becomes QEI’s maid of honor. Derring is do’ed, swash is buckled, and England triumphs over Spain, ‘natch.

The Queen gives a stirring speech when she knights Thorpe on his ship that many claim was supposed to inspire a WWII British viewers at the time. Accurate, it’s not, but entertaining, it is! This ranks very high in Errol Flynn’s sword-and-tights flicks, no doubt. Flora Robson is particularly commanding as QEI, having also played Elizabeth in Fire Over England (1937). And y’know what? The costumes are strikingly 1580s for the 1940s. The silhouette isn’t always right (’30s and ’40s Elizabethan films really seem to love wide, narrow panniers a la the 18th century), but the ruffs are spot-on and the rest of the ornamentation is often very accurate. Bonus points for givingDoña María a uniquely Spanish costume, even if it’s about 50 years ahead of the times (compare with these royal paintings of Diego Velázquez from the 1630s-50s). She wears this Spanish 1630s gown in a lot of dark scenes, so I apologize for the terrible screencaps.

Terrific braid trim all over the bodice. Dat ruff! Dat wig! QEI has a pirate & a monkey. Because she’s the queen. I need to know where Orry-Kelly got all this lace because the pattern is so much closer to Elizabethan than anything you can easily find today. This gown looks so heavy, and yet, there’s still a giant wrinkle in the front. Just using a girdle as a corset or what? Flynn gets a snazzy costume too, and I’ll give him the boots because he is a pirate after all. Are you an Errol Flynn fan? Share this: View All Photos (2) Movie Info In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks -- the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown -- are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. And Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) is the boldest of the Sea Hawks, responsible for capturing and destroying more than 50 Spanish ships and ten Spanish cities.

His capture of a Spanish galleon, however, leads to more than he bargained for, in a romance with the ambassador's niece (Brenda Marshall) and the first whiff of a plan to put Spanish spies into the court of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson). Thorpe's boldness leads him to a daring raid on a treasure caravan in Panama which, thanks to treachery within Elizabeth's court, gets him captured and, with his crew, sentenced to the life of a slave aboard a Spanish ship. Meanwhile, Philip of Spain decides to wipe the threat posed by Elizabeth's independence from the sea by conquering the island nation with his armada. Thorpe, though chained to an oar, knows who the traitor at court is and plans to expose him and Philip's plans, but can he and his men break their bonds and get back to England alive in time to thwart the plans for conquest? The Sea Hawk was the last and most mature of Flynn's swashbuckling adventure films, played with brilliant stylistic flourishes by the star at his most charismatic, and most serious and studied when working with Flora Robson, whom he apparently genuinely respected.

Boasting the handsomest, most opulent production values of a Warner Bros. period film to date, The Sea Hawk was made possible in part by a huge new floodable soundstage. Another highlight was the best adventure film score ever written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and the script's seriousness was nailed down by various not-so-veiled references not to 16th century Spain but 20th century Nazi Germany. The movie was cut by over 20 minutes for a reissue with The Sea Wolf, and the complete version was lost until a preservation-quality source was found at the British Film Institute. Since then, that 128-minute version -- which actually contains a one-minute patriotic speech by Robson as Elizabeth that was originally left out of U.S. prints, as well as amber tinting in all of the Panamanian sequences -- has become standard. Rating:

Question: Which actor starred in the 1940 pirate film 'The Sea Hawk'?
Answer: ERROL FLYNN